Nominations Accepted for Student Activist Award

The Freedom From Religion Foundation offers two annual activist awards for young people. Ongoing is the Thomas Jefferson Youth Activist Award of $1,000, offered by West Coast benefactors and open to young people, not just students. Recipients have included state/ church complainants or litigants, students who challenge religious violations at their public schools or universities, and others who show special courage or dedication in speaking out to defend secularism or promote freethought.

A second award, the Catherine Fahringer Memorial Student Activist Award of $1,000, will start this year. The scholarship will recognize student activism for freethought or state/ church separation, reflecting Catherine’s dedication and her advice to “hang in there with sweet determination.”

Catherine, who was a freethought activist and Foundation officer for nearly two decades, died at 87 in December.

The Foundation co-directors, on behalf of the FFRF Executive Council, extend warm thanks and appreciation to FFRF Board Member Richard Mole, who endowed the Ruth (Dixie) Jokinen Memorial Student Activist Award of $1,000 from 1997–2007.

Depending on timing, recipients of student activist awards often receive their award in person at the annual Foundation national convention.

Nominations for both awards may be submitted by Foundation members to FFRF, Executive Director, PO Box 750, Madison WI 53701 or to exec@ffrf.org. Please include news clippings or a description of the activism of the young person or student being nominated, and contact information (if known personally).